Cira Rodriguez Cesar*
They were nothing more than proof of the impact of this phenomenon caused by human activity and of the urgency to act before it is too late, stress experts and various United Nations organizations linked to environment and development.
According to one of the latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports, global warming of more than 1.5°C would cause unprecedented climate disturbances, such as: larger and more intense storms, rain followed by more droughts. as well as extreme phenomena that may occur more frequently and have irreversible effects on the environment.
2022 should show humanity how much it has damaged nature, hence record heat waves, melting European glaciers, rising sea levels, floods, prolonged droughts, wildfires, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, melting of the poles, changes in ecosystems, mass migrations and acidification the oceans.
By the end of the year, the planet’s overall temperature will be 1.15ºC above pre-industrial levels, giving the decade 2013-2022 an additional 1.14 degrees of warming. The least harmful limit drawn by scientists and included in the Paris Agreement is 1.5°C by the end of the century.
Scientific measurements can ensure that the last eight will be the warmest on record.
Taking into account guidelines adopted by countries and globally, the United Nations Environment Program ensures that the world is on track to reach at least 2.8°C by 2100.
The figure worries specialists, who are calling for more action, a demand that seems to have met with the indifference of many governments.
“Unfortunately, in the last decade, from 2000 to 2019, emissions of these gases were the highest we’ve had in all of human history,” said Edwin Castellanos, author of the IPCC report and director of Science for Latin America The Nature Conservancy, a global environmental organization.
In the summer, several northern countries experienced unprecedented heat waves and the Horn of Africa experienced its worst drought in 40 years, while others contrasted with floods like Pakistan, a phenomenon UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres himself described as “climate carnage”.
For many experts, they were catastrophes in the early stages of a rapid rise in global temperatures, unless further catastrophes are averted in a world that needs to cut pollutant emissions by 45 percent by 2030.
However, the reality is far from this target as the trend is up. In fact, atmospheric concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) reached new all-time highs.
injustice and climate change
The temperature of the world is rising, wreaking havoc indiscriminately at all latitudes. But those responsible and those most affected are far apart.
Together, the members of the G20, the world’s largest industrialized and emerging countries, are responsible for 75 percent of global emissions.
On the other hand, less industrialized countries are more affected by the effects of these emissions, since vulnerability is linked to the socio-economic factors of the population,” assured Castellanos.
For example, Puerto Rico, Myanmar, Haiti and the Philippines top the list of nations with the highest climate risk index, a forecast that takes into account the number of deaths, economic losses and the Human Development Index, among other things.
This is a historic debt that has been called in more than ever this year by developing countries crying out for their repayment due to the apparent worsening of the climate situation.
unprecedented facts
From China to Europe to the United States, the heat of 2022 was unbearable, and millions of people sought shelter and water to cope with high temperatures that spread in time and space.
For example, the Asian giant experienced the worst heatwave in its history, considering the average intensity of heatwave events, the magnitude of the impact, and their duration (from June 13 to August 30).
June 2022 will be remembered by thousands of Europeans as a sign of one of the hottest summers in the history of many countries: Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Italy suffocated with temperatures exceeding 40°C, but in July the highs spread from central Europe and Scandinavia.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 15,000 people died in 2022 in the so-called Old Continent specifically from heat and the drought significantly impacted agriculture with future food shortages.
It was also strongly felt in the United States, with a heat dome in early September and markings at record highs that caused severe wildfires.
Experts warn that emergencies like this year could become more catastrophic and put more lives at risk.
Extreme temperatures also wreaked havoc in the Horn of Africa, a drought that lasted for years and peaked in 2022. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, this is the worst for Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia in four decades.
The United Nations is exposing nearly 26 million people in this area to extreme starvation, and some areas are already experiencing catastrophic famine.
Data from Oxfam (international humanitarian organization) showed that there were more than 44 million people in need of assistance in this African region, while estimating that one person could die of hunger every 48 seconds.
While the north of the planet burned, a third of Pakistani territory soon suffered unprecedented flooding. More than 1,700 died and 33 million people were affected, nearly 15 percent of the population, and material damage totaled $30 billion, according to the World Bank.
The rate of sea level rise has also been unusual, nearly 10 millimeters since January 2020 to a new record this year. The last two and a half years alone account for 10 percent of the total increase since satellite measurements began almost 30 years ago.
In addition, 55 percent of the sea surface experienced at least one marine heat wave.
Along with this phenomenon occurred the retreat and melting of glaciers. Average thickness losses of between three and more than four meters were measured in the Alps this year, more than the previous record from 2003.
COP27 and climate issues
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in his speech at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2022, COP27, in November 2022, called for the establishment of a fund to finance losses and damage, the reconstruction of affected infrastructure and the construction of new infrastructure in Egypt,
Despite the fact that alarming reports on the current climate chaos were presented at the meeting and the UN Secretary-General denounced that “change is devastating at catastrophic speed on lives and ways of life on every continent”, the results were very different.
Although the requested fund was approved, more drastic measures to combat the scourge failed.
Accepted by consensus of almost 200 delegations, this funding went through conflicting negotiations between North and South, with the former refusing to accept the project, which failed due to their opposition at the previous COP, while the latter badly needed it en bloc like a supported old one demand today.
The fund will be largely boosted by rich countries and private contributions, leaving a window for other emerging economies like China to contribute resources, marking the beginning of a new path for climate justice.
However, calls have been repeated for the North to meet its pledges of $100 billion a year in aid to less developed countries to combat the effects of climate change.
Other key issues at COP27, with buts and disagreements, were the future of fossil fuels, whose proposal to stop them was rejected by oil companies, and targets for mitigating and reducing pollutant emissions.
Now is the time to hope that in 2023, at least this part of the world will help mitigate the causes that are creating and accelerating climate chaos on Earth, and most importantly, that the richest will abandon their hypocrisy and end the Am will really help those most affected and least polluters who end up paying for the mistakes of others.
rmh/crc
*Science and Technology Journalist for Prensa Latina